A selfie I took in a bathroom. A bathroom seems like a weird place for posters of your favorite rock stars/celebrities but Hendrix is the best so I couldn’t resist.
Random Thought
I was gonna go off on some rant about award shows and the Oscars and how unnecessary I find them but I ultimately decided that I don’t wanna do that because it’s one of those things where you’d either agree with me or wouldn’t and so why harp on such a silly thing as the judgement of art in a public forum?
Maybe I should be grateful that we have art at all, grateful that we have art that we take so seriously that on certain Sunday nights, it’s all anyone on social media is talking about. It takes over. We all have opinions about art and that’s great. That’s important. That may be the best part of our shared societal experience. I personally may not care who the academy says what the best movie of the year is, but I love that people are passionate about it.
Shit would be bleak and empty without art and if we wanna converse about it and get hyped for silly award shows, that’s so much better than the alternative of no art at all or maybe even worse, a world with art but no one appreciating it.
Movies I Watched Recently
Midsommar
This was a pretty intense movie, and not in a gore/horror sense… sure there’s some gore/horror, but just the story being told, the pacing, it’s real edge of your seat type stuff. A lot of my favorite movies are the ones you watch and they fuck with your head a bit and they stick with you and you spend the next day or two thinking about it still… kinda like most episodes of Black Mirror. This movie had that effect on me in a heavy way.
Also, I’ll probably never watch this movie again. I mean this in the most complimentary way possible. There’s no way this movie will ever be as good as it was on the first viewing. I’m sure if I watched it again I’d notice things I missed but it’ll never give me that thrill again. I’d just be a junkie hopelessly chasing a high I’d never achieve again. So basically what I’m saying with this analogy is this movie is really good drugs just don’t get hooked.
If I have one complaint, it’d be that I find the four main characters to be really dumb at times. Like, almost unrealistically dumb. I can’t give too many specifics without giving away important plot points, but there’s just a bunch of, “fuck this, I’m out,” moments where no one even thinks about leaving and that sorta drives me crazy.
But overall, great flick.
Love & Mercy
This is a bio flick about Brain Wilson (of Beach Boys fame). Two stories are told in back and forth sequences about different, formative times of Brian Wilson’s life. Paul Dano plays a younger Brian Wilson who is coming into his own as an experimenting musical genius (he doesn’t refer to himself as a genius but it’s just sorta understood that that’s what he is). John Cusack plays an older Brian Wilson who is heavily medicated for several different reasons and is struggling with putting his life back together despite the fuck ups of his past. Also, there’s a love interest who plays a very important part. That’s it, no more details.
I’m a Cusack fanatic and no disappointments here. He does a superb job as an older Brian Wilson. But Paul Dano acts his entire ass off playing the younger Brian Wilson. It’s amazing. Also, Paul Giammati is completely fun to hate in his role so good acting on him as well (No surprise there, Giammati’s an acting beast).
This movie was completely off my radar. I didn’t even know it was a movie. It just popped up in my “suggested movies” section on Hulu and that’s when I learned about it. I must’ve been under a rock at some point but I’m glad I got to watch this movie. It’s another great rock bio flick to add to the list of great rock bio flicks.
TV shows I’m currently watching
King of the Hill
I just watched a couple episodes where Hank comes off as kinda a dick. Like in one episode, Luanne sees a ghost or angel or maybe it’s just a figment of her imagination of her dead boyfriend, Buckley. Seeing him lifts her spirits after going through some tough times and she’s suddenly happy, vibrant, and positive about life. Hank sees this and tries to use it as an opportunity to gaslight her into wanting to get her shit together and move out. She doesn’t. She actually makes the decision to quit beauty school and enroll in community college instead. Peggy and Bobby are genuinely thrilled for her and Hank’s slightly disappointed because that means she’s not moving out.
Then in another episode, Peggy joins the softball team that Hank coaches and she’s an amazing pitcher and Hank won’t give her the credit she deserves. Her contributions overshadow his so he in turn tries to over coach her which gets in her head and ruins her pitching. She eventually gets her groove back but it takes Hank having to remove himself from the game (he’s not only the coach, he’s also the first baseman which is sorta a dick move too) to just sit in the stands and watch and appreciate Peggy’s pitching performance.
I usually like Hank but these past couple of episodes bummed me out and I’m beginning to think he only hangs out with the likes of Dale because it makes him look like a way better person in comparison.
Book I’m Currently Reading:
The Things They Carried / Tim O’Brien
I’m off to a slow start, I’m only a chapter in. It’s a collection of short stories about the Vietnam War and the first story is the same title as that of the book, “The Things They Carried.” Spoiler: It’s fucking heavy. It’s a very deep, emotional look at all the things soldiers carried during the war, so many physical things but also so much mentally.
Album(s) of the week
Green Day / Father of All Motherfuckers
Actually, the title may just be, ‘Father of All…’ I’m not sure. I think it’s supposed to include the word, ‘Motherfuckers,’ at the end, but y’know, marketing and whatnot.
Anyways… I thought this was a very fun album. It’s very pop punk with the emphasis being on the word, ‘pop.’ The sound is glossy and clean but it bops the entire time. There’s no real slow down. Green Day seems to take several large steps away from politics and most heavy subject matter. It feels more goofy than serious but in a fun, older punk rock dude way.
They’re not rewriting, ‘Dookie,’ but it’s a solid album. A lot of aging punk rock bands miss the mark with some of their new stuff but this album feels exactly like what a Green Day album should feel like if you told me in 1994 that they’d still be making music in 2020.
It’s not too long either, under 30 min. Give it a spin. You got the time.
Random sports thought of the week
Maybe it’s just the post-Superbowl malaise or maybe I’m still bummed about Kobe or maybe I’ve just been busy (comedy, work, staying out too late, eating snacks, etc) but I haven’t kept up with sports that much this week. All I know is the XFL made it’s debut (again) and people didn’t hate it so I guess that’s a good thing.
Random pro wrestling thought of the week:
Sometimes I can be a real know it all about pro wrestling but then I remember that if I wrote down my predictions for every PPV card I watch, I’d end up being wrong a lot. So here are two things I hope I’m wrong about:
1- Rhea Ripley is trying to taunt Charlotte Flair into a Mania match so there’s no way Bianca Belair beats her for the NXT Women’s title this Sunday.
2- No way Ricochet beats Brock Lesnar at the Saudi Arabia show.
Weekly Top 5 List: Top 5 Movies Rock ‘N’ Roll Movies (based or loosely based on real bands/artists) That I’ve Seen
1- La Bamba
2- Almost Famous
3- The Doors Movie
4- Rock ‘N’ Roll High School
5- Bohemian Rhapsody
Motivational Quote
“I still believe that something is right only when it feels right.” - Brian Wilson
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